Special thanks to ChepeNicoli on Flickr for permission to edit his terrific image.
A few weeks ago, I posted this question to nonprofit bloggers: How do you keep your donors wanting to come back?
We got dozens of responses! Here are my favorites.
Everything you need to know about improving your donor retention
The ever brilliant Jeff Brooks showcased his succinct creativity in the post: All the steps to insanely better donor retention.
If you check out only one post on this Nonprofit Blog Carnival roundup, make it this one.
More posts on how keep your donors coming back year after year
- On the Care2 blog, Allyson Kapin shared “Strategies to Increase Nonprofit Donor Retention Rates with the very cool infographic from the folks at Bloomerang.
- Erik Anderson from TheHealthyNonprofit.com writes about Donor Retention in 2 Easy Steps. They’re at the bottom of the post and they could transform your nonprofit’s fundraising. Seriously.
- Joe Garecht of The Fundraising Authority gives some great advice on How to Get Brand New Donors to Give Again.
- Ann Green encourages you to Find Ways to Engage with Your Donors and gives about a dozen ways to do so, including some interesting ideas on using email.
- On her blog Clarification.com, Claire Axelrad shares 12 Warning Signs that You’re Betraying Your Donors and suggests 8 ways to show donors love with social media.
- Knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do. Joanne Fritz, Guide of the Nonprofit section of About.com, shares 6 Ways to Lose Your First Time Donors. Great suggestions backed up by Adrian Sargeant’s research.
- Lori Jacobwith did her own roundup sharing 5 Resources to Help You With Donor Engagement from her blog.
- Brian Mittendorf, Associate Professor of Accounting at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, shared a post on his blog “Counting on Charity” about Cultivating Repeat Donors with Financial Transparency, including a great example of how to make pie charts more transparent.
- Julia McDowell of Williams Whittle shares some creative uses of video in her post PSA Spotlight: 3 Great Examples of How Nonprofits Have Used Video To Say Thank You.
- Farra Trompeter from Big Duck suggests some areas you should look at in her post 5 Approaches to Keep Your Donors Engaged and links to another post on 11 ways to tell if your donor loves you!
- Craig Linton of The Fundraising Detective shares some real world results from a couple direct mail fundraising appeals he conducted in Donor retention: a tale of two cold mailings.
- Lori Halley of Wild Apricot takes a new look on donor retention in her post Tips for a Long and Happy Donor Marriage, including a relationship quiz.
- Pamela Grow pointed me to a blog post on 101fundraising.org by Francesco Ambrogetti, the Fundraising Advisor for UNAIDS in Geneva called The Big Chill: can we cure donor’s emotional breakdown?. In this post, he draws on lessons from Zappos to George Bailey!
- Gail Perry post 11 Ways to Make Sure Your Donors Keep Giving will have you thinking of ways you can adapt them to your nonprofit.
- Shanon Doolittle shares 6 actions to take to help event donors give again in her post Have You Seen Me?
Speaking of Gail Perry and Shanon Doolittle, they are two of the experts I got to interview for an upcoming tool Pamela Grow and I are working on called The Donor Retention Project. You can learn more on my post: Put together the pieces of the Donor Retention Project in 2013.
Share this post with other nonprofit leaders
2013 looks to be a very challenging fundraising year. With nonprofits losing an average of 60%-70% of donors after the first gift, retaining them is much less expensive way to increase nonprofit revenues than finding new donors.
So share this post with any nonprofit leaders or board members you know. It is packed with cost effective ways to raise money.
And do yourself a favor and check out Jeff Brooks’ All the steps to insanely better donor retention.
The March Carnival is hosted by Rad Campaign. Rad wants your ideas about multi-channel strategy and campaigns for Social Change Anytime Anywhere. Get the details here –
http://www.radcampaign.com/blog/how-do-you-use-multichannel-strategies-create-social-change-anytime-everywhere
A blog carnival, what a great idea.
I am a case (for support) consultant and have a few thoughts to share that relate to the topic of donors coming back:
1. VISION. A number of years ago I was working on a planning study. I was interviewing a major gifts prospect who said: “Give me a vision I can be excited about and you can have my money.”
2. LEADERSHIP. Someone wise once told me that an organization can have a weak cause with strong leadership and succeed, but a strong cause with weak leadership is far less likely to achieve its goal.
3. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE. Make sure the value proposition between your ask and your donor is tightly aligned. People give to what they value and believe in. For example, If a donor is looking to fill his or her retirement years with meaning and purpose, a message on how a gift will help reduce wait times at hospital is not your best message. A message about leading and championing the cause is more aligned to that donor’s values.
Thanks for the comment, Febe. You’re right, vision, leadership, and knowing your donors are all crucial!
Thanks for sharing!